"These white folk have newspapers, magazines, radios, spokesmen to get their ideas across. My first note of a media reference came a quarter of the way into the book. The very act of trying to put it all down has confused me and negated some of the anger and some of the bitterness. (.perhaps, being a talker, I've used too many words). Nor will certain ideas forget me they keep filing away at my lethargy. Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled "file and forget," and I can neither file nor forget. So why do I write, torturing myself to put it down? Because in spite of myself I've learned some things. In the closing of the epilogue, Ellison probes: It was as though in this short block I was forced to walk past everyone I'd ever known and no one would smile or call my name. Was this all that would be recorded? Was this the only true history of the times, a mood blared by trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums, a song with turgid inadequate words? My mind flowed. I moved with the crowd, the sweat pouring off me, listening to the grinding roar of traffic, the growing sound of a record shop loudspeaker blaring a languid blues. The genius of which is expressed in the following passage: Though his medium is now the written word, his language has the offhand, offbeat, vernacular quality of speech which, together his story, has kept generations of readers having their say, talking back to him and to Ellison about 'the principle' and about 'the beautiful absurdity of American identity', which press on in ways 'just as concrete, ornery, vile and sublimely wonderful as before, only now better understand relation to it and it to '.Īnd I like Callahan's temporal compliment:Īs a writer, he was blessed with an elastic sense of time. Invisible Man makes a powerful appeal for our participation. Callahan, addresses some interesting media points: In the introduction of Ellison's novel, John F. The reference to the Wells' invisible character is that of alienation. Ellison's Invisible Man expands the meaning of invisible, the same way the term color blind grew to have social implications. Wells published The Invisible Man in 1897. I want to discuss here media references, both outside and inside the book. I have already written about flags as a motif and mirrors as a literary device. I gasp when I read back-handed compliments such as "the best novel by an African American." Ellison was a great universal writer and I believe my approach supports this with such specific examples. The reason for this is because I will leave the deeper discussions for the true scholars of this text.Īnother reason is that I hope my perspective reveals a side of Ellison that is often lost to the conversation about the more obvious theme of being 'black' in America. Invisible Man is a book about humanity and the struggles of achieving and maintaining a certain level of respect, dignity and value as a human.and yet, I have been discussing very superficial elements such as flags and mirrors and I want to continue to discuss them. It is a powerful book and an important American novel so I want to discuss it here in five, consecutive postings: the use of the US flag, the use of mirrors, media references, art references and the theme of invisibility. I recently completed Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952).
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